recent27Oct01

TOMATOS! All summer no tomatos and after I'd given up all hope TOMATOS! I had actually gone outside to pull up the plants and put them in the compost pile when I noticed one tiny ripe tomato and several other nearly ripe ones so I decided to leave them there a little longer. We then had a couple of cold nights getting into the low 40 and high 30s and I figured that would have done in any remaining tomatos so I went out to tear out the plants and low and behold there were about ten ripe little cherry tomatos out there. So I figured I'd give them a little longer, well the temperture warmed up and I've ended up with hundreds of little tiny (but delicious) tomatos. I expect to have quiet a few more to bring in over the next couple of days.

The story of the marigolds is acutally similar to the tomatos. I was a little late getting both of them planted in the spring and by the time they were really getting started it was too hot and dry for them to do anything. But now that it's cooled down a little they're doing great. Hopfully I should have several weeks of flowers before the first frost comes.

This has been my favorite flower bed all summer but it's finally starting to look a little ragged. The marigolds (different marigolds from the ones pictured above) are doing fine and the basil is still holding on fairly well, I think I love basil as an annual flower more and more each year. The sunflowers have all died and the zinnias and the moss rose are holding on, but just barely.

Ya, I know these are crappy pictures but we'll all have to come together to overcome this obstacle. The picture on the left is one of the waxleaf privets I planted last winter. It has done consistantanly well all summer, it will be interesting to see what it dose this winter, I beleive that were near the northern boarder of it's growing range. The picture on the right is a glossy abeila bush. Frankly this is one of the more boring plants we have but has started producing a few small white flowers.

This isn't the best picture either, the problem is trying to take a picture of an ornimental grass with a grass background. Anyways I planted four maiden grass plants last winter to serve as a back ground for my roses. Three of the plants have done fairly well but one didn't make it. These plants have only gotten about two feet tall so far which is shorter than the roses which they're supposed to be the background for. Maiden grass is supposed to get about 5 feet tall but I'm not too worried, I usually figure the first year after you plant something you're mostly just wanting it to get established and not die. I'm hoping next year it'll get to around 4 feet and the following year I'm thinking it should get to it's full size.

You can't see them, but the roses are still producing a few roses. The picture on the right is one of the gazinias in front of the roses. This is my third year growing gazinias and some have proven more winter hardy than others so it should be interesting to see how well these hold up. So far there hanging in there although here pretty soon I'll be adding pansys around them.

This is that wild flower that came up last spring, I've enjoyed watching all summer. I've noticed some new growth on it, I'm hoping it comes back next spring. It's really the only thing of any interest on this side of the house.